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In a not-too-distant future, robots composed of metal for bones, electric cords for veins, and synthetics for skin are now available. For purchase. Eighteen-year-old Vienna Avery’s home is going to change forever, now that her mom purchased an Italian Chef Robot to cook and reside in their house.

Secrets will Unfold

The government claimed robots were indifferent, unthinking pieces of metal and elastic—assistance for hire to humans. Vienna never believed much of what the government said. The pieces didn’t always fit. And now Vienna knows why, because she’s uncovered the government’s secret: that robots have emotions, sucking Vienna into the underground world of feeling, thinking, and sovereign robots.

Sparks will Fly

Alec Cypher is everything a robot is not supposed to be: deep, dark, and dangerously human. And for some reason, he wants to save Vienna from the government’s prying, vindictive eyes. Going forward, Vienna will have to learn to trust robots and battle the growing feelings she never thought possible . . . feelings for the green-eyed, soul-searching robot named Alec.

Hi everyone! I arrived in South Africa this morning, and I am so freaking happy.

Anyway, I was supposed to bring you today a review and an interview, but it seems something got missed in communication, so all I have for you is a review! Hopefully, I’ll be able to update this post with the interview at some point…

This review pains me a little to write, so I’m going to rip the bandage off and make it quick. Simply put, this story was published too soon. Like a very premature baby, so much of it is underdeveloped and could have done with more editing and a round of proofreading. There was certainly potential, but it did not deliver. Read on carefully, as it’s a little spoilery.

I’m hoping that the copy I received will go through some more editing before it gets published, as there were so many grammatical errors and inconsistencies. That’s part of the reason I couldn’t connect to this story. For example, the synopsis says the robot Vienna’s family acquires is an Italian Chef Robot, but he’s actually a French chef in the book (or at least for most of it). There’s also a bit where Vienna refers to a robot as Bonnie…then gives the robot the name Bonnie later on… What?

There was one point where I got really excited. Vienna wakes up one morning, and she’s suddenly in a lot of pain… period pain! She cries out, and Alec comes running in. He gets into the bed with her and heats up his hand and abdomen so that her core is warmed up – can I have that please???? BUT, it goes no further than that. She doesn’t jump out of bed to check her sheets, and there is no mention of tampons or pads. Just pain for one morning and nothing more is said. Disappointing and gratuitous.

One of my biggest grievances in all of this is the lack of appropriate responses. Vienna has a normal seeming relationship with her mom in the beginning, and then it blows up in what I thought was a very mild argument but was apparently relationship-destroying. It confused the hell out of me, especially when Vienna obsessed over whether her mom loved her. There was so much telling and not nearly enough showing of this dynamic.

Then, despite her seeming distrust of robots, Vienna seems to fall in love with one in a matter of days?! Insta-love alert! I mean, I’m ok with insta-love if there’s a good explanation for it, but this was just so unbelievable. There’s this electron-sharing business, which is supposed to indicate that a robot has found their “soulmate” type person, but it’s not explained how or why. At least in other stories, there is a reason for a bond to form between two people/creatures. However, it’s never explained how or why robots have these matches. Do they even have the equipment for a sexual relationship? If so, why???

Even the fish has inappropriate reactions! As someone who has had many pets in my lifetime, including over fifty fish, I can tell you that fish do not respond to your presence like a dog or even a hamster would. But alas, Vienna seems to have a very special fish that recognises her and can tell her when it’s hungry. What.

And then the kicker, which I’m going to hide for only those of you who want a real spoiler. View Spoiler »Vienna gets kidnapped by the government, “tortured”, then unexpectedly released in front of the press with something about how she’s the researchers’ greatest achievement. She’s put into a black van without any explanation as to why they did any of these things and what was “achieved”. I assume she either passes out or goes to sleep, as next thing you know, she’s with Alec again. If I had been in her situation, I’d be panicking and questioning everything, but her reaction is massively underwhelming. There’s some mention of Alec going crazy while she was being held for some unknown length of time; I wish the book had actually been written from his perspective, as I think his attempts to break into the facility would have been far more interesting! « Hide Spoiler

Here are my reading updates from Goodreads for more insight…

The very last page was possibly the most exciting part of the whole book. However, unless I can be assured that any future books are more carefully edited, I will not be reading next book. I’m sorry, but this baby could have been left in the womb a lot longer.

Excerpt

I never locked eyes with a robot before.

Never.

Not once.

I guess I thought it would feel different. But it doesn’t. Nothing is different. It feels the same, the same as looking into a human’s eyes.

I wanted to pry my eyes away but now that I’ve started, I can’t stop staring. Even from this distance, I could tell the robot’s eyes were a honey brown.

They are so close to being one of us. But they can’t be. They can never be us. Or at least, that’s what the government says.

The robot’s indifferent gaze shifted from mine and it strode toward my neighbor’s Lincoln Town Car. The robot’s gait caught with every third step and the elbow twisted incongruently when it opened the car door—the only telltale signs it wasn’t human.

This robot had dark-brown hair, tan skin, and was dressed in a chauffeur’s suit.

My neighbor, Mr. Romero, waved at me as he exited the car, and I just stood there, mouth agape and knees locked.

Mr. Romero frowned but I couldn’t wave back. I couldn’t move. I was frozen to that spot on my porch with my keys dangling from my fingers and my purse sliding down my shoulder.

It was just as the news had said. Everything was. From the eyes, to the nose, the lips, to the hair, it all looked so real. I had never studied a robot that wasn’t on TV; I was always too busy avoiding them. But when they weren’t moving, when they weren’t doing anything, when they were just standing there, they looked exactly like people. Exactly.

Together, they disappeared inside the house, Mr. Romero with his stout frame and wiry black hair, and his robot chauffeur.

I now lived next door to a robot.

The keys felt cold in my hand, and I realized for the last several seconds, my focus had been consumed by the now empty driveway.

Leave it to me to do something like that.

I opened the door and leaned against it as it clicked shut behind me. Everything was changing. And everything would be different.

“Mom, I’m home.” I shrugged off the door and into the family room.

“Be right there, Vienna.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I called back, hoping mom would leave me alone.

“How was shopping? Find anything you liked?” Mom appeared and wiped her hands on her paint-covered overalls. Mom was a die-hard artist. She lived, breathed, and probably ate paint.

At a whole head taller than me, Mom still looked great. Forty-five and thriving was her motto. Mom and I had wispy blond hair, pale-green eyes, and a small nose. Unlike me, her hair was cut in a bob-like fashion, the front angled longer, reaching past her shoulders, where mine was always in a ponytail.

Mom’s eyes lit up and suddenly, it was like all the energy in my body had been stolen from me, sucked out, leaving me dry and empty.

“N-N-N-o,” I breathed.

Mom wouldn’t—

“Everyone’s getting one,” Mom said.

My legs shook.

“Did you know Mr. Romero just bought one yesterday?” Mom asked, face glowing while it felt like mine had lost all of its blood. “And you’re going to love him. Look.” Mom winked at me and stepped back to pull a sandy-blond brown-eyed twenty-something-year-old man from behind the kitchen wall.

I couldn’t breathe.

Air was trapped in my body, as I stood there, gaping, into this man-robot-thing’s eyes.

Brown eyes. Sandy-blond hair.

I jerked backward and stumbled into the coffee table.

The robot was right in front of me.

No.

Freaking.

Way.

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